The chair, which will receive some $2 million in funding over five years, will study ways to improve the mental health and well-being of people with ASD and their families in Canada.

Jonathan Weiss speaking at the announcement Monday

and his team will examine why people with ASD are prone to develop mental health problems, evaluate novel treatment strategies to help youth and adults with ASD deal with these issues, as well as other stressful events like bullying. It鈥檚 estimated that between 40 and 70 per cent of people with ASDs have at least one co-occurring mental health problem, including anxiety, depression and anger.

91亚色 President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri congratulated Weiss, saying 鈥�91亚色's Faculty of Health is home to some of Canada's leading researchers, who work collaboratively to improve health promotion, disease prevention and health care in the community. I am proud of their commitment to bettering the health of the nation.鈥�

Mamdouh Shoukri

The first $1 million of funding will come听from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)听in partnership with Autism Speaks Canada, the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorders Alliance, Health Canada, NeuroDevNet and the Sinneave Family Foundation. 91亚色 will match those funds, along with its community partner, the Spectrum of Hope Autism Foundation.

ASDs are a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioural challenges. The number, kind and severity of symptoms varying from one person to another and includes children and adults.

Colin Carrie

鈥淭he majority of people with autism will experience mental health problems at some point in their lives. Good mental health translates into better outcomes for these individuals and for their families, and to a reduced demand on our health and social systems, which benefits all Canadians,鈥� said Weiss, who also holds a New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation.

His team will work with people with autism, families, service providers, and government to share cutting edge research that will inform mental health care policy and practice across the country.

Weiss is also looking to hear from people with ASD, their families and service providers to help direct the research questions his team will ask. To that end, a new website 鈥� 鈥� was launched Monday where people can subscribe to learn more about what the program is doing. He will also be putting together an advisory and working group in January to provide input, determine the best way to answer the research questions, inform stakeholders of what is learned and transform that knowledge into improved policy and practice. He hopes that as the program of research grows, the advisory group will attract national representation.

Harvey Skinner

Faculty of Health Dean Harvey Skinner believes Weiss is up for the challenge, saying he was impressed by the breadth of Weiss鈥� perspectives, as well as how he reaches out and bridges the gap with the community.

Parliamentary Secretary Colin Carrie, who was at the announcement on behalf of Leona Aglukkag, minister of health, said he understands at a personal level the need for this kind of research. He has a son with ASD who is now in university. He added that he was heartened to hear about the research work that will be done by the new chair.

Mike Lake addresses the crowd with his son

鈥淥ur Government is committed to helping Canadians maintain and improve their health. That鈥檚 why we are supporting research that will use innovative approaches to improve the health of Canadians who live with autism,鈥� Carrie said.

MP for Edmonton Mike Lake brought his son, who has been diagnosed with ASD, to the announcement. He said he also understands the challenges faced by families who have a member with ASD. With a nod to the organizations in the autism community, Lake said they 鈥減rovide a valuable link to Canadians affected by ASD and their families and they will be critically important to the success of the research program and implementation of the results.鈥�

Robert Thirsk, vice-president, Public, Government and Institute Affairs, CIHR; Dan Goldowitz, scientific director of NeuroDevNet; Dr. Margaret Clarke, senior vice-president of the Sinneave Family Foundation; Jill Farber, vice-chair, Autism Speaks Canada; and Frank Viti, CEO, Autism Speaks Canada, were also at the announcement.

For more information, visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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鈥淧erfectionism does not necessarily result in higher levels of performance and may even backfire,鈥� says Gordon Flett, a psychology professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Canada Research Chair in Personality听& Health.听鈥淪tudents can be vulnerable to negative automatic thought patterns, which can lead to psychological distress and performance avoidance.鈥澨�

Gordon Flett

Flett, lead author of 鈥淧rocrastination Automatic Thoughts as a Personality Construct: An Analysis of the Procrastinatory Cognitions Inventory鈥�, a new article soon to be published in the Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, found related patterns of negative ruminations among procrastinators focused on perfectionism, fear of failure and guilt. These negative thought patterns 听contributed to an increased stress level in students and delay in accomplishing tasks, findings that are similar to a previous study by the same research team showing that perfectionistic professors produce fewer published articles.听

Recent surveys show that between 50 and 60 percent of responding students rated themselves as perfectionists, and 45 per cent indicated a problem with chronic procrastination.

So how can students move past the negativity and become high achievers? Flett offers听tips for starting the school year off right:听

Aim for excellence, not perfection
鈥淭he goals should be striving for excellence rather than striving for perfectionism,鈥� says Flett.听 鈥淭his means that students should work strenuously 鈥� but not obsessively 鈥� in order to achieve their goals. The goals should focus on excellence and doing well rather than being flawless. The focus should be on learning effective and adaptive ways to learn new material and developing good study skills.鈥�听

Don鈥檛 get bogged down with external expectations
鈥淪ome students suffer jointly from procrastination and perfectionism. Fear of failure is one personality style that links these. It is important here to be not too concerned with what other people think.鈥澨�

Learn to muzzle that negative inner voice
鈥淪tudents are especially prone to stress if they ruminate and think continuously about the need to be perfect. Our work shows that students ruminate about their procrastination and have such thoughts as 鈥榃hy didn鈥檛 I start earlier?鈥� and 鈥楴ext time will be different.鈥櫶� Students can learn to control these thoughts and should do so since these thoughts are linked with depression, anxiety, lack of conscientiousness and avoidance.鈥澨�

Get help if you need it
鈥淧erhaps the biggest problem is that perfectionistic procrastinators do not seek help, whether it is for assistance with their learning style or for their psychological issues. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness and is not something to be ashamed of. In fact, it is the smart thing to do.鈥�

For more University news, photos and videos, visit the homepage.

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Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience higher rates of bullying, which听are听associated with a higher incidence of mental health issues, according to a study in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders this month by 91亚色 researchers.

鈥淰ery little research has been done to assess the relationship between bullying and mental health in youth with ASD. It鈥檚 always been suspected there was a link, but this study confirms that,鈥� says 91亚色 Psychology Professor Jonathan Weiss, lead researcher of the study and co-author of the article, along with Debra Pepler, Distinguished Research Professor in Psychology, and first author M. Catherine Cappadocia, PhD candidate in clinical-developmental psychology.

M. Catherine Cappadocia

鈥淚n the study, those youth with ASD who experienced little or no victimization, less than two or three times in the past month, compared to those victimized at least once a week, exhibited less anxiety, self-injury and over-sensitive behaviours,鈥� says Cappadocia.听She, Weiss and Pepler, who is scientific co-director of the Promoting Relationships听& Eliminating Violence Network (), are all听members of听91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health.

In 鈥溾��, the researchers surveyed 192 parents whose children, between the ages of five and 21 and enrolled in elementary or secondary school up to Grade 12, had been diagnosed with ASD. The authors examined the parents鈥� reports of victimization, along with the association between the rate of victimization experienced and mental health issues. Seventy-five per cent reported their child with ASD had been bullied within the last month at school, 23 per cent reported victimization two or three times, 13 per cent reported victimization once a week and 30 per cent two or more time a week. Fifty per cent of the youth with ASD had experienced victimization for more than a year, and that can lead to anxiety, depression, self-injury, hyperactivity, over-sensitivity and a lower self-concept, says Cappadocia.

听听

Jonathan Weiss

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the first studies to look at bullying in youth with ASD. It鈥檚 important as it shines a light on youth with ASD and victimization,鈥� says Weiss. 鈥淚 think it really highlights that chronic victimization is common for some of these youth. A large percentage of the youth in this study experience chronic victimization. Those are the youth that have significantly more mental health concerns.鈥� In addition, he says, one in 110 children has been diagnosed with ASD. 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the most common identifications in the school system.鈥�

One factor that puts youth with ASD at risk for victimization is when they have more difficulty being assertive and making friends at school. They often lack social and pragmatic skills, and their parents may be less empowered to effect change as a result of the number of major stresses in their lives. 鈥淭hese are a lot of the same factors that are found in the general population of kids that are bullied,鈥� says Weiss. 鈥淲hat really stands out in this study is the association with these risk factors.鈥�

A lack of friends is a significant risk factor for bullying even in the general population and leaves these children unprotected by their peers. That means no one is going to stand up for them when someone starts to bully them. 鈥淓ighty-five per cent of the time when bullying happens, peers are watching,鈥� says Cappadocia. 鈥淚f a peer stands up, 50 per cent of the time the bullying stops. Peer support makes a huge difference and represents a robust protective factor these kids are missing.鈥�

听Debra Pepler

Youth with ASD may also be more vulnerable because they lack the skills needed to react effectively to victimization when it does occur. 鈥淲hen children with ASD are targeted, there can be a more intense behavioural reaction, which may encourage the child who is bullying to continue,鈥� she says. 鈥淚f a child with ASD has a strong emotional or behavioural reaction, the bullying can become chronic, especially if peers tend to jump in and encourage the child who is bullying. It can keep escalating.鈥�

Weiss, Pepler and Cappadocia all do clinical work in addition to research. In her clinical work, Cappadocia frequently sees youth with ASD who have been bullied. 鈥淧art of the interest in pursuing this particular research came from being interested clinically in how to help these children.鈥�

The next step is to find interventions to help these children and their classmates, which would then translate to the general population, says Weiss. He is looking to run groups at 91亚色 next year for youth with ASD who experience bullying, which will look at all facets of the problem, from peers, the school, their family, as well as the child.

He is also interested in looking at what makes some youth with ASD, who鈥檝e been victimized, resilient. He鈥檒l be examining what the peer, family and school relations are like, and why they may buffer the potential mental health impact of victimization.

Cappadocia received support through the Provincial Centre of Excellence for Child & Youth Mental Health at CHEO Graduate Award and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships Doctoral Award. Weiss was supported by a New Investigator Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, while Pepler was supported by Networks of Centres of Excellence through its support of PREVNet.

For more information, visit the website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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A 91亚色 study found that 鈥� every day for five to 15 minutes for a week 鈥� increased their happiness and self-esteem.

After six months, many were still actively helping others and were reporting that their happiness and self-esteem levels were still up, according to the study, which will be published in the spring edition of the , an international scientific quarterly available online through Springer science and business media.

Myriam Mongrain, associate professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and lead author for the study, says 700 people from across Canada were recruited online at the end of 2007 through a Facebook ad and then directed to the survey site, . The age group of respondents ranged from 18 to 73 with 80 per cent women and 20 per cent men.

The data collected on the original respondents 鈥� before they had started the compassion exercise 鈥� showed that the majority were 鈥渄epressed,鈥� says Mongrain.

Of the original 700 recruits, 458 people completed the first week鈥檚 exercise which required them to help or interact with another person every day 鈥� it could be someone they knew or a stranger 鈥� 鈥渋n a supportive and considerate鈥欌�� way. The positive effects on their happiness and self-esteem were 鈥渧ery strong,鈥� says Mongrain.

After three months 260 responded, with the majority saying that they were still performing acts of kindness 鈥� one to three days a week 鈥� and feeling the same positive effects. After six months, which was the end of the study, there were 179 responses with most still doing a good deed one to three days a week and feeling happier for it.

Despite the high drop-out rate, the results indicate that the exercise of performing acts of kindness 鈥渟ustained increases in happiness and self-esteem,鈥欌�� says Mongrain, who had help analyzing the data from co-authors of the study, [91亚色 researchers] Jacqueline Chin and Leah Shapira.

The study, funded by the , was also covered May 17 in the London Free Press and Toronto Sun and May 18 in The Globe and Mail and on 680 News in Toronto.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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If you were wandering through Vari Hall last Wednesday afternoon, you could have stopped and chatted with听fourth-year psychology students about听some pretty esoteric听subjects.

The rotunda was a maze of posters featuring听the thesis projects of 78 students ready to explain whether听eating disturbances are听symptoms of depression, how to measure prejudice, the relationship between exercise and forgiveness, how听sound affects perception of space. Their research projects, supervised by听faculty members,听spanned all areas of听psychology听鈥� cognitive, social, developmental, quantitative, history and theory, neuroscience, and clinical.

The end-of-year event has become so big that the Department of Psychology moved it to Vari Hall last year from the crowded halls of the Behavioural Science Building.

The poster projects are worth five per cent of students鈥� final mark and judged by roving graduate students based on clarity, design and the students鈥� ability to explain their research in a comprehensive manner.听Many will go on to present their research at a variety of national and international conferences.

鈥淲hether you are speaking to your supervisor,听other professors or听fellow students, it is important to know how to present and communicate your results to different audiences,鈥� says psychology Professor Susan Murtha, who has organized the event for the past three years.

And the students who go on to graduate studies will have to defend their research to external examiners who don鈥檛 know much about their field. 鈥淚t is really important to be able to understand how to communicate.鈥�

Left: Poster winners Angela Deotto (top) and Lilly Solomon. Photos by Brett Thompson

By 4pm, judges had selected two who did it best: Angela Deotto (supervised by Christine Till) for her poster "Mathematical impairment in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis: Relationship with white matter integrity"; and Lilly Solomon (supervised by Jennifer Steeves) for her poster "MS to the 鈥榦ccipital face area鈥� affects face recognition but not categorization". They won $50 gift certificates to the 91亚色 Bookstore.

Both Steeves and Till are members of the .

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Individuals who wrote themselves a compassionate or optimistic letter every day for a week were less depressed up to three months later and reported an overall increase in happiness after six months.

More than 200 people logged onto a website for seven consecutive nights to complete the exercise, then filled out questionnaires measuring their progress at intervals of one, three and six months. Participants were assigned one of three conditions: self-compassion, optimism or a neutral control condition.

鈥淚nterestingly, we noted significant improvements in mood for all participants, except those who exhibited extreme neediness,鈥� says study co-author (right), a psychology professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health.

In the self-compassion exercise, participants were directed to address an upsetting event, attempting to comfort themselves as they would a friend in a similar situation.

鈥淭he idea was to try and be good to yourself, to realize your distress makes sense and provide the words you would need to hear to feel nurtured and soothed,鈥� Mongrain says. The exercise was adapted by Leah Shapira, the study鈥檚 lead author and a graduate student in 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Psychology.

Those assigned an optimistic task were instructed to visualize a future in which current issues were resolved and give themselves advice on paper on how to get there. In the control condition, participants wrote freely about an early memory.

Researchers then looked at the effect of compassion versus optimism for individuals prone to depression. Numerous studies, including Mongrain鈥檚 own, have established that dependent and self-critical personality types are at high risk for depression. Self critics feel guilty for not living up to the demanding standards they set for themselves, generating feelings of worthlessness. Dependent personalities are characterized by fear of abandonment and the dissolution of interpersonal relationships.

鈥淚mmature dependents experience intense fear of rejection and a sense of helplessness,鈥� Mongrain says. 鈥淢ature dependents, on the other hand, thrive on connectedness; they are people pleasers who experience anxiety but can have positive and trusting interactions with others.鈥�

Researchers found that self critics experienced the greatest benefits from optimism exercises, whereas those with more connected personalities profited most from self-compassion. 鈥淐onnected individuals are able to nurture others, meaning that this compassion can theoretically be extended to the self,鈥� Mongrain says.

The study, 鈥淭he Benefits of Self-Compassion and Optimism Exercises for Individuals Vulnerable to Depression鈥�, was published in The Journal of Positive Psychology. Those with access can view the study through .

This study was funded by a grant from the .

Mongrain's study was covered by in an article that included fictional satirical letters to themselves by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff:

Anyone can write a love note to himself to help create lasting happiness. The only caveat is that it doesn't work as well if you're too self-critical, needy and oversensitive to potential abandonment. That's the finding of a research paper out of 91亚色, published recently in The Journal of Positive Psychology.

"It was an effort to create a tool for when things don't go as well as you wanted," says Myriam Mongrain, professor of psychology in 91亚色's Faculty of Hedicine, who worked as project leader on the study along with lead author and 91亚色 graduate student Leah Shapira (MA '09).

Mongrain acknowledges that in Western society such Buddhist-style loving kindness directed toward the self is not encouraged or even acceptable. "Many believe that you won't get anywhere by being kind to yourself; letting yourself off the hook is a recipe for failure or disaster," she says. "They've begun to believe that they need to be tough on themselves to reach their high standards.... For them, they might think it meant they were lazy or self-indulgent. But it offers another world view, another prescription in how to relate to oneself. ... The public needs to know that this will not interfere with their work ethic."

The approach might also lead to greater harmony among people, she adds. "If you interpret events as signs that you're incompetent, that you're a failure, that you're inadequate, all of those judgments toward yourself will lead to an unhealthy approach 鈥� overcompensating for example...and you become angry as a way to defend yourself, to retaliate."

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Soraya Mehdizadeh of 100 users at 91亚色 ranging in age from 18-25 years old. Her study, published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, found that individuals higher in narcissism and lower in self-esteem spent more time on the site and filled their pages with more self-promotional content.

鈥淲e all know people like this. They鈥檙e updating their status every five minutes and the photos they post are very carefully construed,鈥� says Mehdizadeh. 鈥淭he question is, are these really accurate representations of the individual or are they merely a projection of who the individual wants to be?鈥�

Mehdizadeh says she was struck by the fact that those with lower self-esteem were more apt to use this social networking tool.

鈥淚 believe the next question to be answered is whether or not the use of such websites could be used to improve one鈥檚 self-esteem and overall sense of well-being. This sort of finding may have great implications in the lives of the socially anxious or depressed,鈥� she says.

In the study, five features of participants鈥� Facebook pages were assessed for self-promotion: the 鈥渁bout me鈥� section, the main photo, the first 20 pictures on the 鈥渧iew photos of me鈥� section, notes, and status updates.

For the purpose of the study, self-promotion was defined as any descriptive or visual information that attempted to persuade others about one's own positive qualities. For example, facial expression (striking a pose or making a face) and picture enhancement (using photo editing software) were assessed in the main photo and 鈥渧iew photos of me鈥� sections. The use of positive adjectives, self-promoting mottos, and metaphorical quotes were examined in the 鈥渁bout me鈥� section. Self-promotion in the notes section could include posting results from Facebook applications including 鈥渕y celebrity look-alikes,鈥� which compares a photo of the user to celebrities, or vain online quiz results.

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure participants鈥� self-esteem. Narcissism was assessed using the Narcissism Personality Inventory.

Mehdizadeh also looked at the role of gender: she found that men displayed more self-promotional content in the 鈥渁bout me鈥� and notes sections, whereas women demonstrated more self-promotion in the main photo section. No significant difference between the sexes was observed with regards to content in 鈥渧iew photos鈥� or status updates.

The research was conducted as part of Mehdizadeh鈥檚 undergraduate thesis in the Bachelor of Psychology program in 91亚色鈥檚 .

鈥淚 thought this was an interesting way to apply theoretical paradigms in psychology to online self-presentation, which is still a fairly new concept,鈥� she says.

By Melissa Hughes, media relations officer.

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Last week, 16 therapists from as far as Israel, Hong Kong, Denmark, Portugal and Australia, as well as听the United States, were at 91亚色 for four days of in-depth skill training at the Emotion-Focused Therapy Level Two 2010 Summer Institute led by Greenberg. The week before, Level One was offered. Both sessions, which听were full and had a waiting list, were held at the new听 at the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic (YUPC).

Right: Leslie Greenberg instructs therapists from around the world on emotion-focused therapy

鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place in the world they can do this in-depth听training听that I developed with my collaborators, and it鈥檚 becoming a world-recognized approach,鈥� says Greenberg, who and the 2010 Carl Rogers Award听from the American Psychological Association's Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32).

Although ideas about EFT began percolating when Greenberg was completing his doctorate in psychology at 91亚色, the approach really started to come together in 1993 following the book听, co-authored by Greenberg. He has since authored and co-authored several books on the subject, including . It was听in 1995 that Greenberg began doing evidence-based research to support the approach.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was the dominant treatment at the time and had already generated evidence that it worked, but as Greenberg says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 not an in-depth approach to how humans function. It鈥檚 good at helping people cope, but not really good at dealing with the core problems people have. So it seemed important to develop a much more in-depth approach to human emotions.鈥� And in the 1980s, there was a greater understanding of the role emotions played. 鈥淢ore and more scientific evidence began to show how important emotions were in life.鈥� That included some of the unpleasant emotions.

Left: From front left,听therapists Timothy Downing Brown from the United States and听Ben Shuhar from Israel, and from back left,听Nels Klint Karsvang and Belinda Lange from Denmark, in the Emotion Focused Therapy Level Two 2010 Summer Institute at 91亚色

There is strong evidence now that EFT, with its focus on developing emotional intelligence and听the importance of secure relationships, helps couples having marital difficulties, as well as individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and eating disorders, says Greenberg, who was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Career Award by the Society for Psychotherapy Research, an international, multidisciplinary, scientific organization.

EFT听is designed to help people accept, express, regulate, understand and transform emotion, not deny or suppress it. Emotion alerts people to what is important in any given situation and acts as a guide to what is needed or wanted, says Greenberg. Working with these emotions helps people to figure out what they should do.

Right: From left, Eve Alon from Israel, Leslie Greenberg, Chui Fan Yip from Hong Kong, Melissa Harte from Australia, Candice Knight from the US and Jo茫o Salgado from Portugal were just a few of the therapists who came to 91亚色 to learn emotion-focused therapy

鈥淓FT focuses on helping people become aware of emotions, express their emotions in听the right way at the right time, learn to tolerate and regulate them, and to reflect on them to make sense of them and transform them,鈥� says Greenberg. It is not enough to learn about emotions; people need to experience them in a safe environment, such as in a therapy session, and learn how to manage and use them in a flexible manner. It鈥檚 not about eliminating听emotions, but working with them.

Therapeutic approaches such as CBT and psychoanalysis have their place and have helped a lot of people, but they don鈥檛 address the whole picture, he says.

Now that EFT is an internationally recognized approach, Greenberg will be spending much of his upcoming sabbatical training therapists around the world who couldn鈥檛 make it to 91亚色 this summer, starting听in his home country of South Africa.

The Emotion-Focused Training for Couples 2010 Institute听is the next session Greenberg will offer for therapists at the Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic听from听Nov. 22 to 25.

For more information or to register for future training institutes, visit the听YUPC Continuing Education Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The results show that a type of perfectionism in which individuals feel others expect them to be perfect, known as "socially-prescribed perfectionism," is associated with postpartum depression for first-time mothers.

The study is one of the first to look how perfectionism affects women's ability to adjust to life after childbirth. It involved 100 first-time mothers in Toronto, Canada, who filled out questionnaires to assess their level and type of perfectionism as well as feelings of depression.

The link between perfectionism and postpartum depression was strongest amongst those who try to deal with perfectionism by appearing as if they don't have a problem.

"What this suggests is that there might be some new mothers out there who might seem like everything is fine, in fact it might seem like everything is perfect," said, a professor of psychology [and Canada Research Chair] at 91亚色 in Canada. "[But] in fact it's just the opposite, that they're feeling quite badly but they're pretty good at covering it up."

This finding is particularly concerning, because it means friends and family might not realize their loved one is suffering from depression.

"This tendency to put on this front usually means that people don't tell other people when they're doing badly, so somebody might not know that a young women is having difficulty; they might have no clue whatsoever," Flett said. "And there's sadly some cases where the family says 'We thought everything was fine,' and the next thing we know, the person is no longer with us," he said.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The title will be conferred on Armstrong at the Spring 2010 Convocation on June 16 at 10:30am and on Greenberg during the June 17 ceremony at 10:30am.

A Distinguished Research Professorship is awarded to a professor who has demonstrated scholarly achievement by sustained publication or other recognized and accepted demonstrations of sustained authoritative contributions to scholarship.

Right: Pat Armstrong

Armstrong, who is appointed to听graduate programs in health, political science, science & technology, sociology and women's studies,听holds a (CHSRF)/ (CIHR) Chair in Health Services.听She is also a听professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity .

She recently received Social Sciences &听Humanities Research Council of Canada () funding through the program to identify promising practices for understanding and organizing long-term residential health care. Armstrong's project seeks to learn from and with other countries to understand the approaches, structures, accountability practices and ownership arrangements that create conditions prompting respectful and dignified treatment for both residents and caregivers.

Another SSHRC-funded research project looks at the risks nurses face in health care, while a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded project compared the workplace conditions and levels of violence faced by long-term care workers to those in Nordic countries.

She has authored, co-authored or co-edited over 20 books, including , , and .

Armstrong chairs Women & Health Care Reform, a working group that crosses the Centres of Excellence for Women's Health, and is acting co-director of the National Network on Environments & Women鈥檚 Health. She is currently a principal of the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services & Policy Research, a board member of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research, and has served as both chair of the Department of Sociology at 91亚色 and director of the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton.

In addition, Armstrong has served as an expert witness in more than a dozen cases heard before bodies ranging from the federal court to federal human rights tribunals on issues related to women鈥檚 health-care work and to pay equity.

Left: Leslie Greenberg

(PhD 鈥�76), appointed to the Graduate Program in Psychology,听is among the pioneers and is primary developer of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for individuals and for couples, which is based on the findings that emotions influence thought and behaviour.听It is a psychotherapy technique that promotes the resolution of unpleasant emotions by working with them rather than suppressing or avoiding them.听Greenberg is interested in couple and individual therapy using EFT, as well as examining how people deal with unresolved emotions and听how听that affects their ability to forgive. In recent years, he has used EFT to help couples听when one person has had an affair. He is also interested in how EFT can help people听with听depression.

EFT is now recognized as evidence-based treatment for depression as well as couple conflict, and there is also growing evidence of its effectiveness for trauma, interpersonal problems and eating disorders.听In a 2002 study, Greenberg and his colleagues studied individuals who had suffered injuries ranging from emotional to physical abuse and found that those who were treated with EFT had much better results than individuals who were treated with psycho-educational therapy. Greenberg has devoted over 20 years to EFT research and has conducted EFT workshops for therapists interested in learning his theory and technique around the globe. Closer to home,听he is providing training in EFT for professionals from around the world at the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic.

Greenberg has won many awards, including the Award for Excellence in Professional Training from the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs, the Carl Rogers Award from the Division 32, the Distinguished Career Award from the Society for Psychotherapy Research and the Professional Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession from the .

His听professional publications include more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, 89 book chapters and some 17 books, including , , and .

He is a founding member听of the and the Society for Constructivism in Psychotherapy, and a past president of the .

In addition, he is on the editorial board of many psychotherapy journals, including the and the .

For more information about Distinguished Research Professorships, visit the Faculty of Graduate Studies Web page. The list of current and past Distinguished Research Professors is available on the 91亚色 Research Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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